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They are still in the area, but have downsized and those former employees just started their own smaller companies in the area. that says a lot in terms of talent staying in the area and wanting to stay in the area. That is also why the Rochester metro area is in the top 25% of the top 100 metro areas in the US in educational attainment. Cities with the Most College-Educated Residents - Graphic - NYTimes.com While this list is a bit old, I don't think things have changed too much in terms of these rankings.
Rochester was host to 5 Fortune 500 companies a few decades ago:
Gannett: Founded in Rochester moved to the DC area around the launch of USA today. Still employs many at its state of the art printing plant in Canal Ponds Business Park. D&C just built new headquarters building. The corporate office was not that large anyways. Just a few floors at the top of the Lincoln First Tower.
Xerox: Founded in Rochester. Grew to fast. Had to move to Connecticut to be near large corporate financial community. I believe that there are still a few corporate people here that didn't want to move. (I'm not sure, but a few years ago there were quite a few who stayed behind). Still has the largest manufacturing facility companywide in Webster and occupies Rochester's tallest building downtown.
Kodak: Founded in Rochester. Still here but.......BTW Eastman Business Park is thriving.
Sybron: Founded here with the merger of Ritter Co., Pfaudler, Taylor Instruments, Nalge. With the exception of the headquarters, and Taylor Instruments the other jobs mostly still exist here. Nalge is doing very well.
Bausch and Lomb: Founded in Rochester. Unfortunately accounting scandal caught up with the company and it was picked apart only to focus on eye care. The by now shrunken headquarters was purchased by Valiant and moved to NJ. The manufacturing remains in Rochester.
Some good news:
Constellation Brands: Founded in Canandaigua and now located in Victor is a Fortune 500 Company.
Paychex: Founded in Rochester is close to becoming a Fortune 500 Company.
I still think Austin is #1 - favorable business climate in TX, socially liberal city with culture, lots of tech talent, and Whole Foods is based there (can combine HQ).
Austin would make a lot of sense. But Inhot the expression that Bezos wanted a location close to DC and NY. Amazon would like a headquarters close to the capital and close to the markets, advertising, and their corporate clients in NYC.
Cities like Philly, Boston, Charlotte, or Atlanta fit what Amazon wants. I'm sure they made their decision before they even announced this. This competition is to extract tax credits and other benefits from their chosen new location. Nowhere in NY is going to get the headquarters. No one really cares about upstate NY, and the housing costs in NYC strike down Amazon's requirement for reasonable housing costs.
Nowhere in NY is going to get the headquarters. No one really cares about upstate NY, and the housing costs in NYC strike down Amazon's requirement for reasonable housing costs.
Austin would make a lot of sense. But Inhot the expression that Bezos wanted a location close to DC and NY. Amazon would like a headquarters close to the capital and close to the markets, advertising, and their corporate clients in NYC.
Cities like Philly, Boston, Charlotte, or Atlanta fit what Amazon wants. I'm sure they made their decision before they even announced this. This competition is to extract tax credits and other benefits from their chosen new location. Nowhere in NY is going to get the headquarters. No one really cares about upstate NY, and the housing costs in NYC strike down Amazon's requirement for reasonable housing costs.
He does have a home in DC and he owns the Washington Post. So, I think he is looking at the East Coast as well.
With this said, I still think that entering this “contest†helps areas that might not be thought of as much to highlight aspects of their community that companies may not know much, if anything, about. So, it may not be Amazon, but it may be another company or it could even make a company stay and expand due to things that an area offers.
My money is on Atlanta. Is Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill in the running? That would be my second choice.
I don't see Austin. Too damn hot in the summer, too congested with traffic, and not on the east coast.
Not sure if Bezos as the guts to do something totally out of the box and pick Rochester or Buffalo. And he would probably pick Pittsburgh over both of them
I love these debates and criticisms of Rochester. Because they DRIVE me!
To NYWriterDude who seems to think Rochester doesn't keep companies or that "top talent" doesn't want to be here, oh the contraire. In fact Rochester builds companies. While we may not attract that many from outside the region (there are a few), but we definitely create them.
Kodak while a shell of itself still has its HQ in Rochester and employs a few thousand here.
Xerox while not having it's HQ since the 70's, still employs the vast majority in Rochester with 6,400
Paychex founded here, with it's HQ still here and still having record growth every single year employs 5,000
Harris Corporation has its Communications division HQ in Rochester and employs 3,500. Harris Communications develops and provides the most sophisticated software defined radio for the US Military and Military around the world. Rochester engineers are also involved in the James Webb telescope
Constellation Brand (not sure of employment numbers) is the largest wine and spirit distributor in the world and has kept its HQ here in Rochester through its stratospheric growth from a small wine producing company to the largest distributor in the world.
Datto an IT company founded in Boston by an RIT grad recently opened a second HQ in Rochester because the founder loves Rochester and felt he could get the best talent here
Optimax another Rochester founded company developed lens for the James Webb telescope
Rochester is home to over 100 Optics, Photonics and Imaging, the largest concentration of companies in the world
Something else to consider. I'd be willing to bet that part of the tax incentive being offered to Amazon would revolve around the Startup NY program. That program allows a company to operate 10 years tax free. And here's the kicker. It's not just the company but also the employees will be exempt from NYS wage tax.
Just imagine what kind of tax savings that would be for Amazon to operate 10 years without paying any state tax? And imagine what that would mean for offers to employees telling them they wouldn't have to pay state income tax during that period of time? What is that worth? It has to be billions of dollars.
Now combine that with Rochester's low cost of living and high quality of life?
This is what the Moody's analyst stated when WHEC here in Rochester reached out to him for comment:
Quote:
Last week, Moody's ranked Rochester as the fourth best option for Amazon, ahead of Pittsburgh, Miami and Boston. We reached the author of the report on the phone and asked him: How did we get to fourth?
"What really stood out about Rochester is the fact that there's a certain trade off in most places between cost on one hand and quality of life on the other," says Adam Kamins, Moody's Analytics. "And with Rochester you can kind of get the best of both worlds."
My money is on Atlanta. Is Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill in the running? That would be my second choice.
I don't see Austin. Too damn hot in the summer, too congested with traffic, and not on the east coast.
Not sure if Bezos as the guts to do something totally out of the box and pick Rochester or Buffalo. And he would probably pick Pittsburgh over both of them
He would pick Philadelphia. Pittsburgh is not a serious contender and neither is anywhere in NY. I could see the Raleigh area being considered.
He would pick Philadelphia. Pittsburgh is not a serious contender and neither is anywhere in NY. I could see the Raleigh area being considered.
Raleigh is very sprawled out and car centric. There is also the political aspect in regards to NC as well(think Bathroom Bill). Besides that, it would be a good place to pick, but just about any area is going to have visible pros and cons.
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